Hans VB by Nationaal Archief, Den Haag, Rijksfotoarchief at wikimedia

Another of my short stories is to be published by the nice folks at Route. ‘Trying to find Van Breukelen’ will appear in a new collection in the forthcoming months. Originally called ‘The Death of the Flower Girl’, it was short listed out of 240 for the Three Cities Connect writing competition.

The story basically involves a father taking his son to visit the grave of  his mother. To help the child come to terms with the grief they play a game, trying to spot the names of former Forest players’ on the gravestones. As always it is my intention to get in Nottingham references as and when I can.

Hans Van Breukelen was the Nottingham Forest keeper between 1982-84. He took over from Shilts and played 142 games. I chose him for the title because he has a great name and because ‘Trying to Find Stevie ‘One-Eye’ Sutton’ hasn’t quite got the same ring…

On the novel front, I am currently editing down This is all I Know for Route. Losing words is probably more important than writing them and so the novel is slowly sharpening up. This is consuming all my time and so all other writing has been put on hold until this is finished. The publication date is Spring 2007.